Tag Archives: Gadget Show Live

Cats are possibly the laziest animals on the planet but they shouldn’t be completely indolent. They need regular exercise but it needs to be on their terms and most cats won’t go on a lead for walkies. At Gadget Show Live, Raido from Wazombi Labs tells me about RollyCat, the world’s first cat companion and fitness tracker.

The RollyCat is small remote controlled ball which coaxes the cat into play. It can work in two modes, one manual and one automatic. In the manual mode, the owner can control the ball from his (or her) smartphone via a RollyCat app. In automatic mode, the RollyCat teases the cat with the occasional movements to encourage the cat to play.

Much like any activity tracker, the cat’s play is tracked and recorded in the smartphone app. At the end of the day, the owner can review the cat’s activity and see whether the pussy has been getting enough exercise for the breed, age and weight. The RollyCat learns from the cat’s behaviour to encourage it to play at the most active time.

The RollyCat charges wirelessly via a small pad and communicates with the owner’s smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth. The ball can go around 4 days between charges.

Regrettably, RollyCat’s Indiegogo campaign didn’t reach its target of $50,000 so the project is on hold. If there’s any further news on the RollyCat, I’ll update GNC readers when I hear.

In the last of my interviews with participants in the British Inventors’ Project, I’m with Avril from Ding Labs and their Ding Smart Doorbell. She tells me more about it.

At first glance, the doorbell looks the part, dressed in “on trend” minty green. Broadly, there are two parts, the Ding Chime and the Ding Button. Obviously the Button goes outside by the door for visitors and pressing the Button will ring the Chime. In addition to ringing the bell, Ding will make a voice call to the owner’s smartphone so that a two way conversation can take place between the caller and the owner.

The Ding Chime connects via WiFi to the home network and in addition to connecting to a smartphone, there are other communication options such as a text message or a call to a land-line. It’s intended that the Ding Chime will be an easy user fit.

The Ding Smart Doorbell is still under development but the team are aiming to keep the costs down to around GB£100. A Kickstarter is expected in September with delivery in April 2017.

With our penultimate visit to the British Inventors’ Project at Gadget Show Live, I’m with Lesley from KiddieRail. She saw that for children banisters on stairs were too fat and too high for them to use comfortably so it’s hardly surprising to see that children under 5 have over 58,000 accidents on stairs every year in the UK, with larger numbers in the USA. As a result, she designed KiddieRail, a child-friendly height-adjustable handrail systems that grows as the child does.

The tubular handrail is fixed to an existing banister or wall with special mounting brackets that hold the handrail in place. As the child grows up from toddler to pre-schooler and beyond, the handrail can be moved up to be at just the right height. The other clever feature of the mounting brackets is that they can support the handrail at any angle, whether the stairs are steep, shallow or even on a flat landing. If that’s not enough, if the child is holding the rail, they’re not putting sticky hands on wall.

The KiddieRail is expected to go into testing shortly and it’s hoped to be on the market before the end of 2016. The price hasn’t yet been fixed but the team is aiming at less than GB£100 for approximately 3 m (10 feet) of stairs. There’s more detail at the KiddieRail website where you can sign-up to receive updates on the project.

For anyone who uses water on a daily basis, knowing the quality of the water is essential. For these people, CleanGrow has developed a “laboratory in a suitcase” which is able to analyse six water-based nutrients in one go. Ian from CleanGrow tells me more about it at Gadget Show Live.

Developed for food growers and other industries that need to accurately measure nutrients and ions in water, the Nutrient Analyzer measures six different ions at once. Using a top-secret membrane to attract the ions, the analyser detects and quantifies six from calcium, chloride, magnesium, potassium, sodium, ammonium, nitrate and (coming soon) phosphate, before sending the data to an iPhone or iPad. The system is very easy to use – put the water in the bottle, stick the multi-sensor in the bottle and the Analyzer tells you what’s in the water. The sensors can detect from as little as 0.05 ppm to 60,000 ppm with a sample typically taking less than 20 seconds to be analysed.

Although the march of technology has been towards miniaturisation and making gadgets smaller, there are some things that need to be big and there’s no value in making them smaller. For example, luggage and suitcases need to be big enough to get enough clothes and belongings in for the trip. This is perfect while the bags are needed on travel, but once home the bulk is unnecessary and a waste of space for those unfortunate enough not have storage in a garage, loft or attic. Nicky and the team at Néit have the answer with collapsible luggage.

Winning a “Highly Commended” at the British Inventors’ Project, Néit’s collapsible luggage folds from a rigid suitcase to only 9 cm / 3″ wide. Once folded, the case can be stored anywhere convenient – upright in a cupboard, flat on top of wardrobe or hung from a clothes rail. Made from a polycarbonate shell and aircraft-grade aluminium, the picture shows the Néit case folded (the blue light strip is for effect only). In addition to space-saving, the Néit luggage has a couple of other tricks too. The handle has built-in scales, so there are no surprise excess weight charges at check-in. There’s GPS tracking too, so if the airline mislays the bag, the Néit smartphone app can track its location almost anywhere in the world.

The collapsible luggage comes in two sizes, a 90 litre hold bag and 38 litre carry-on and they’re available for pre-order from Néit’s webstore. Currently priced from GB£229 and £189 respectively, the bags are expected to ship in December 2016.

My little girl loves playing outside but I’ve noticed over the years that many of her outdoor toys become damaged and discoloured from the elements of sun, wind and rain. While small toys can be put away in the shed, larger items have to stay outside to be battered about. Kev and the Folding Playhouse may have the solution for at least one garden toy and he tells me more about the development of the product from idea to the current concept model and plans for the future.

The Folding Playhouse is what it says. It’s an outdoor plastic playhouse that folds down, either for storage or for conversion into an arts and craft table. It folds in around 15 seconds and can be reassembled just as quickly. Once completely folded, the Playhouse is not only easier to store in the garage or shed, it can be taken in the back of a large family car for fun at friends’ and relatives’ houses.

The picture above shows a 3D printed miniature version of the Folding Playhouse. The final version will be in bright colours, about 1.5 m high, 1.4 m wide, 1.3 m deep, with the potential to customise with stickers or decals. With all new products, feedback is vital and there’s been plenty of that at Gadget Show Live as part of the British Inventors’ Project.

Kev and his team have been in contact with toy companies worldwide to bring the Playhouse market and the expectation is that this would sell for under GB£200. There’s more information on the Folding Playhouse website, which has some interesting market stats – did you know that 30 million outdoor toys were sold in the UK in 2014 generating nearly £350 million in sales?

Easily the best thing at Gadget Show Live, the Supermarinovation x2 is a “wearable personal underwater propulsion device” but it’s much more fun thinking of the x2 as an underwater jetpack. With only three main components – two arm-mounted thruster units and a battery backpack – the x2 brings Superman-like flight to swimmers and free divers. Shown as part of the British Inventors’ Project, Chris tells me about the x2 and its development from idea to product.

Aimed at swimmers and snorkellers, the idea is to get down to the interesting bits of the ocean as quickly as possible to get as much bottom time before having to pop back up for air. With the two power units at full pelt, the x2 propels a swimmer at around 7 mph, which is fast for a person underwater. Playtime is about an hour, though this is more reflective of the swimmer’s capabilities rather than the x2 going flat out, and it’ll be depth rated down to 10m (33 feet). Most reefs are well within this depth.

The outer shells are all 3D printed and a small number of advanced prototypes have been sold with a full launch of the x2 anticipated later in the year. Prices are expected to be around GB£4,000 for the x2 Sport and £8,000 for the Pro version. I’ll take two for my superyacht.

Since Gadget Show Live, a new x2 has been announced, the x2 Compact, which attaches the propulsion units directly to the back battery pack. A fourth product called the Hammerhead is in the works too, which is held in front with both hands and then pulls the swimmer along. Check out the renders in the Facebook links above.